It is well known to provide hardtop vehicles which have removable roof configurations such as targa tops or convertibles. It is also known to provide a sealing arrangement along the junction of an upper rear edge of the windshield glass, a header rail and a front end of a removable roof member.
FIGS. 4-6 show an example of a typical prior art sealing arrangement for this portion of the vehicle. The prior art sealing arrangement includes three distinct components to provide sealing between a rear upper edge of a windshield glass 10, a header rail 11 and a front end of a removable roof member 12. These components include a windshield reveal molding 13, a header weatherstrip retainer 14 and a header weatherstrip 15. As best shown in FIG. 4, the windshield reveal molding 13 is preferably a rolled formed metal component, preferably made of aluminum. The generally U-shaped header weatherstrip retainer 14 is also preferably a roll formed metal component, preferably made from stainless steel. As shown in FIG. 4, the windshield reveal molding 13 and the header weatherstrip retainer 14 are assembled together, such as by rivets 16, to form a subassembly 17. As best shown in FIG. 5, the subassembly 17 is then connected to an upper windshield frame portion 18 of the header rail 11, such as by screws 19. As shown in FIG. 6 in the assembled condition, a forward edge of the windshield reveal molding 13 rests on the rear upper edge of the windshield glass 10. Referring to FIG. 6, the header weatherstrip 15 is preferably a rubber component which is either molded or extruded. It will be appreciated that the header weatherstrip 15 is adhesively bonded to the header weatherstrip retainer 14 in a separate assembly step. When the removable roof member 12 is mounted on the vehicle as shown in FIG. 6, the forward edge of the removable roof member 12 seals to the header weatherstrip 15 to provide a quiet and dry passenger compartment.
However, the prior art design has the shortcoming of requiring three distinct components which require subassembly and are relatively labor intensive to install. In addition, the use of three components for sealing can create potential leak paths between the three components, especially between the separate header weatherstrip 15 and windshield reveal molding 13. Also, the use of three components, two of which are preferably made of rolled metal, provides a relatively heavy sealing arrangement.